The project aims to empower students to take a leading role in reducing the carbon footprints of the communitites in which they live.
Carbon management training will enable them to carry out campus and community carbon audits that result in significant carbon savings and positive behaviour change.
The pilot project will work with two colleges and two universities in Scotland, training and supporting student Carbon Ambassadors.
The volunteers will gain practical experience of reducing the carbon emissions of organisations, enabling them to make a difference to the communities in which they live.
Pilot students’ associations
The students’ associations participating in the pilot project are:-
Are you interested in being a Student Footprints Carbon Ambassador?
This is your opportunity to make substantial reductions to the carbon footprint of your community, while gaining valuable environmental knowledge and practical auditing experience, boosting your employability and developing your interpersonal skills.
Volunteer time commitments:
- One day training event
- Two - three carbon audits (approximately half a day each)
- Writing up of the audit report after each audit (to be submitted no later than one week after the audit takes place)
If you are interested in volunteering with the NUS Scotland Student Footprints project, contact your students’ association using the contact details below:
Not involved in the pilot project?
Would you like the opportunity to train as a Student Footprints Carbon Ambassador in the future? Why not contact your students’ association president asking them to get involved in the project at the next stage!
Are you interested in receiving a Student Footprints carbon audit for your organisation or business?
If you run a local business or community organisation in the vicinity of one of our pilot students’ associations, and you think that your organisation would benefit from a carbon audit, please get in touch with the NUS Scotland carbon ambassador project officer: Ruth Bush.
Frequently Asked Questions for community organisations
What will be required from audited organisations?
All Student Footprints carbon audits are free of charge. However, we are looking for the participating organisations to be committed to implementing as many of these audit recommendations as possible. (See the sample audit report at the bottom of this page for examples of potential saving recommendations).
The project is keen to quantify the carbon savings that are achieved from the audits, and all departments will be asked to fill in a survey detailing the changes they have implemented approximately one month after the audit is carried out.
How will the audits be organised and reported back to the organisations for action?
We will arrange an audit date and time with each organisation where the carbon ambassadors can be shown around and undertake their audit checklist.
The ambassadors will then produce an audit report for the organisation, prioritised in terms of carbon savings, and ‘no cost’ recommendations. (See the sample audit report at the bottom of this page for examples of potential saving recommendations).
Who will have access to the audit reports?
As this is a pilot project the audit reports of each organisation may be required as case studies for rolling the project out further across Scotland. However, we will always ask for permission from individual organisations before doing this.
Aside from this, all audit reports will be available to NUS Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council (as the funders of the pilot project), the carbon ambassadors that undertook the carbon audit and the organisation itself.
What types of local businesses and community organisations will be audited?
We aim for the community carbon audits to be carried out with organisations that the carbon ambassadors use in their day-to-day lives: shops, cafes, bars, churches, community centres, etc.
If you think your organisation or business falls into this category and you would like to receive a free carbon audit, please get in touch with the NUS Scotland carbon ambassador project officer: Ruth Bush.
Click here to view a sample student footprints audit report
